We flew in to Dubai, this was my first long haul flight with Theo, he was settled for the flight although had a big vomit while we were in transit at Brisbane airport.
Theo and Jackie were able to get quite a bit of sleep on the plane. I didn't sleep so much.
We arrived in to Dubai, it was something like 5am local time when we arrived. At immigration we were probably looking a bit unsure about where to go. I think Jackie must have been wearing Theo in the front pack, she was approached by an official to ask what passport we were travelling on. I thought here we go, time for the interrogation. But instead, when we said we're on NZ passports, he said, "Well, this must be the future king of NZ, follow me" and he promptly took us to the first class lane where we didn't have to wait and were processed by a friendly immigration officer.
Picked up our bags and met our driver who drove us to Dubai. The driver was very nice, I've forgotten his name, he pointed out all the sights and we talked about cricket and football, he's from Kerala in India so a big fan of both sports. The journey was probably close to 2 hours, I'm not sure if I stayed awake the whole time.
We got to the Parson's residence, had a nice coffee, breakfast and showers making us feel slightly normal. It was still quite early so we headed out for a walk but it was already hot, 30+ degrees so we didn't stay out for long.
 |
| A view of the Abu Dhabi skyline on our walk |
We drove to a mall for lunch and to pick up some groceries, as I've mentioned before we love going to supermarkets in different countries so this was quite fun for us. The most unusual thing we saw was massive bags of milk powder, we decided they put that in their baths to have milk baths.
 |
| The boys just hanging out together |
Jackie went for a swim while me and Theo caught up on some sleep.
 |
| View from the Parson's apartment |
Delicious home made meal for dinner and to bed, we were zonked.
The next day we drove to Yas Island where the F1 is held. We had lunch at Stars and Bars, which is a restaurant/bar the original is based in Monaco which we went to with Kate many years ago.
 |
| Money |
 |
| Stars 'n' bars, the place to take kids for lunch |
 |
| More boats and fancy buildings at Yas Island |
We were given a grand tour of Abu Dhabi on the drive back, including stopping for take away coffee and cake from Jones the Grocer, which is apparently a well known Australian cafe, their coffee and cake was very good.
The next day we drove back to Dubai, stopping at Lime Tree cafe before going to the airport. Lime Tree cafe is a NZ style cafe, we had nice coffee, juice and cake.
The flight back was relatively uneventful, we got home on a Saturday which gave us a couple of days to recover before returning to work after Easter Monday.
Unfortunately by the time we got home Theo had become quite unwell, he wasn't keeping his food down at all, always throwing it up in dramatic fashion. He was also a bit out of sorts generally and was coughing quite a bit. Turns out he had a bout of pneumonia, well so the doctor said. He was prescribed some antibiotics and recovered quite quickly. I suspect the combination of busy, long flights and drastic changes in temperature were the cause.
Thoughts on Abu Dhabi... I don't get it. There are lots of big buildings, wide streets, fancy cars but it felt a bit like the Truman Show where so much seemed staged.
 |
| Burj Khalifi, the tallest building in the world, in Dubai |
